Culture:Only two years after the famine that had produced such striking repentance and baptisms, the people became rich. Mormon included a very specific list of what “rich” meant: the possession of “fine silks,” “fine-twined linen,” “many flocks and herds,” and “gold and their silver, and all manner of precious things. . .” He capped these descriptors with that particularly Book of Mormon sin: wearing “very costly apparel.” What happened here?
First, the famine ended. It had been caused by the destruction of crops, not by drought or poor soil. The next season would have restored normal levels of food production. By the second year, the famine was completely over. Still, how could Zarahemla rise from famine to great wealth only two years later? The very return to production may have been sufficient to qualify as “riches” in Mormon’s definition. (See commentary accompanying Alma 1:31–32.) Thus, Mormon was not describing so much the rapid rise to wealth, but a return to good conditions. The reason for the increase in the baptisms and the broader establishment of the church had been the famine, which motivated the repentance of those who had previously espoused worldly philosophies. When the famine ended and prosperity returned, it was human nature to forget the bad times and return to the personal pleasures that preceded the hard times. In this case, it seems obvious that those who had previously liked a worldly lifestyle returned to it.
Chronology: The eightieth year of the judges would be 85 B.C.